DOUBLE THE FUN

The Bloomfield boys rallied behind a Division I football player and an established coach eager to rebuild a basketball program weakened by transfers.

The Bloomfield girls came together behind a senior guard called "Shorty" - who pulled down 15 rebounds in the state final - and a first-year coach whose demanding style turned them off.

In the end, on consecutive Saturdays in March, both teams won Class S state titles. Bloomfield is the fifth school to win boys and girls championships in the same year, the first time a school has won both S titles.

Even more remarkable than the disparate coaching styles of Gary Barcher and Kevin Kimlingen - one a self-described Bloomfield lifer; the other a climber who has already accepted a college job - or the cast of unlikely heroes led by Marcus Cooper and Shanielle "Shorty" Duncan-Clarke, were the odds that both teams surmounted.

The Bloomfield boys entered the state tournament at 10-10 and seeded No. 21. The girls were 11-9 and seeded No. 19.

Each team won five straight in the postseason, the two squads feeding off each others' success - the boys painting their faces at girls games and the girls traveling en masse to the boys games.

"It's like a big family," said Cooper, who will attend Rutgers on a football scholarship. "It was nice to have each others' back. We made a lot of noise. We had a little cheering section, did some crazy stuff in the stands for them."

"Magical is the word," Barcher said. "It was just so impressive to watch them."

The Bloomfield boys, coming off three straight losing seasons, wanted to win eight games this year, the minimum number to qualify for the state tournament. Barcher had watched seven players transfer after winning the Class L state championship in 2002.

"The last three years were just a nightmare," Barcher said.

The boys started 0-3 after Barcher missed the first two games because of a death in the family.

"I thought talent-wise we would be right there with anybody in Class S," Barcher said. "But now you're 0-3 and it's easy to just feel like we're not that good. Then you look at the schedule. There were eight ranked teams that we played."

Kimlingen took the girls job in October - just before the season started - after spending two seasons as the head girls coach at Tourtellotte-Thompson.

He thought the Bloomfield job would help propel him to the college ranks. The goal was to play in the state final at Central Connecticut's Detrick Gymnasium in New Britain.

"Over there [in Thompson] they play basketball when they feel like it," Kimlingen said. "It wasn't their top priority. I figured I'd get to one of the city schools where they play basketball as their No. 1 sport."

"I told the kids on day one, I'm here to win a championship," he added. "I said 'Do you know where we're going to be playing on the last day of the season? I said 'Central Connecticut, 13 miles.' We just kept saying it, '13 miles.' "

The boys were 1-3 when they traveled to Bulkeley-Hartford on Dec. 27. Bulkeley was a big, athletic team that would crack the Top 10 in the state and reach the Class L quarterfinals. Down by 20 in the third quarter, Bloomfield came to win 64-63.

"That one, in my mind, I said 'We got a chance,'" Barcher said. "The kids got progressively more confident."

The boys won their eighth game on Feb. 5, beating Hall-West Hartford, 61-34.

"That's when we thought we could go all the way," said 6-5 sophomore center Denzell Jones. "We worked harder in practice after that. We got serious, got down to business."

The girls started 4-3, some of them rebelling against Kimlingen's disciplinary style. He challenged them to be good students and citizens and held back playing time for those who didn't comply. Duncan-Clarke, a 5-foot-3 floor general, sat out the Conard victory on Dec. 21 for talking back to her coach.

"He was tough on me," she said. "He just yelled at me to play harder, to stop yelling at the other kids."

The girls were 8-3 when disaster struck in a 61-40 victory over Hall-West Hartford Jan. 11. Senior guard Kia Brown - the team's leading scorer at 13 ppg - went down for the season with an ACL injury.

"When we lost Kia, I was like, God, what are we going to do?" said senior guard Ericka Sagay. "But we fought through it. The underclassmen knew they had to step up."

The girls, playing without Brown, took Class L Wethersfield to triple overtime on the road before losing, 51-50.

"We knew then we could still play without her and we just picked it up," Kimlingen said. "With the big two still in place [Duncan-Clarke and Sagay], we just set on the mission to still get to Central."

The girls first-round tournament game was at No. 14-seed Tourtellotte and Kimlingen was admittedly squeamish.

"There was more pressure on me in the Tourtellotte game that there was in the state championship," he said. "I was stressed out. I said, 'They'll have a field day with it in the Norwich Bulletin if I lose to my old team.' "

The Hawks won 53-36, then defeated third-seeded Capital Prep 55-43. In the final, the girls beat No. 16-seed Coventry 45-39 after trailing by 11 at halftime.

Duncan-Clarke finished with 28 points, 15 rebounds, six steals and was named the Most Valuable Player as Bloomfield won its first girls basketball title while becoming became the lowest seed to win a girls basketball tournament.

"I told the kids, when you win the championship, you'll love me after that," said Kimlingen, who has accepted a job as assistant women's coach at Post University in Waterbury. "When it's all said and done, you'll be a hero for the school."

"It's been fun," Duncan-Clarke said. "They put up balloons and pictures all over. Everybody is happy for us. We had a lot of fans come out and support us, a lot of teachers, kids that graduated years ago."

The boys now were feeling their own pressure.

"I was telling Kevin, when the girls won it all, we still had two games, the semis and the finals," Barcher said." I never felt so much pressure in any sport event when I played or coached to win two games. The talk was that we both can win Class S. It's the first time two schools did it in the same year in the same class. All I saw in front of me was this opportunity that was once in a lifetime."

The boys beat No. 9 Capital Prep 71-53 in the semis and No. 7 Kolbe Cathedral-Bridgeport 78-71 in the final.

Sophomore guard Rashad Moore - who didn't play as a freshman - was the final MVP with 22 points. Cooper had 18 points and 10 rebounds against Kolbe. The boys also got a big lift from sophomore point guard Shomari Cowan, who missed the first 13 games for academic reasons.

"I thought Shomari was the difference in our playoff run," Barcher said. "He struggled the first three games back and then he got his feet under him. He made us a better team."

On March 25, the night of the school's winter banquet, Denzell Jones said he was still enjoying the ride.

"It's been very fun," he said. "You get a lot of respect when you win championships. You get a lot of props."